Visitors Bureau May Donate $750,000 For Disney Party

The Orlando-Orange County Convention and Visitors Bureau may spend as much as $750,000 in cash and services to help Walt Disney World celebrate its 15th anniversary party in October.

The bureau has promised to give Disney $335,000 in cash to help defray the cost of the Oct. 2-5 event, to which Disney plans to invite at least 5,000 foreign and U.S. journalists and their guests.

The bureau also will need approximately $165,000 to $415,000 to throw a separate party and video presentation for the visitors in downtown Orlando, bureau president John E. Evans said Tuesday.

Beginning at its membership luncheon today, the bureau will solicit individual and corporate donations ranging from $1,200 to $12,000, Evans said Tuesday. The bureau hopes to reap free publicity on television and in newspapers and magazines worth an estimated a $6 million.

In exchange for the bureau's $335,000 commitment, Disney has agreed the city and county can entertain the journalists on their first night in Central Florida. The bureau's key event will be a party set for 7 p.m. at Lake Eola in downtown Orlando. Evans said its purpose will be to convince the guests that there is more to the Orlando area than Disney World.

The bureau also will host a separate gathering the morning of Oct. 2, featuring a video presentation of ''the story of Orlando and the growth of this area,'' Evans said. For $12,000 a company may get a mention in the video show ''if it fits in properly'' with the show's theme, he said.

The nighttime party has been dubbed ''The Magic Beyond the Kingdom,'' Evans said. ''People think Orlando is just a sleepy little Southern town, and this is our chance to change that perception through what we show journalists from all over.''

Singer Toni Tennille and the Florida Symphony Orchestra will entertain at the event, Evans said. In addition, Sea World and Cypress Gardens will put on two free water-ski shows on Lake Eola, and Disney World will put on a free fireworks display, he said.

Fund raising for the bureau's event ''is coming along slowly, like most fund raising,'' Evans said. It hasn't been decided who will pay for or donate food, he said. He wouldn't disclose how much has been raised so far.

Though Disney plans to spend $1.5 million of its own money on the birthday bash, it also has received a commitment from Osceola County officials for $335,000 in cash. Osceola officials estimated recently that the county will spend as much as $885,000 to host their own separate parties.

Osceola officials and Disney already have locked horns over the way the journalists will be transported to that county's parties. Disney agreed to handle transportation any way Osceola sees fit after the Osceola County Tourist Development Council threatened last week to pull out of the event.